1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to circuit board connectors, and particularly to a so-called backplane connector, and to the copending U.S. Pat. Nos. 09/893,810 filed Jun. 27, 2001 and 09/904,353 filed Jul. 11, 2001, and an application filed on Aug. 17, 2001 with an unknown serial number titled xe2x80x9cCONNECTOR HAVING MOVEABLE INSERTxe2x80x9d having the same inventor and the same assignee with the instant application.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat No. 5,785,534 discloses an electrical connector having contacting devices which establish electrical contact wit a module board. In this design, the contacting devices has a housing and two connector halves which are accommodated in the housing and swivelable toward and away from each other. In a mounting position, in which the two connector halves are swiveled away from each other, the connector halves allow the insertion of one PCB Printed Circuit Board) to be brought into contact with them. In a connecting position, in which the two connector halves are swiveled towards each other they establish a contact with the inserted PCB. In a word, the connector serves the purpose of electrically and mechanically interconnecting the inserted PCB to a PCB the connector is mounted.
The connector generally includes a plurality of contacts located in each half. In different applications, PCBs of different lengths are needed so that the number of the contacts must be changed as required. For this reason, the connectors are to be offered in different lengths, the various lengths preferably corresponding to an integral multiple of a basic length which can be provided in advance.
However, conventional backplane connector is integrally manufactured in a single process. In other words, in order to fit the length of the connector being variable, it is needed to provide a plurality of molds respect to different lengths if possible. Thus, it involves relatively high expenditure.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a backplane connector, which allows the connector to be both manufactured in a simple manner and processed in a simple manner even if the backplane connector is to be variable in its dimensions.
In order to achieve the object set forth, a backplane connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of signal contacts received in one side of the housing, and an inserted body accommodated in the housing. The inserted body can be selectively swivelable toward to the signal contacts into a connecting position and away from each other into a mounting position. The inserted body has a plurality of terminal modules longitudinally disposed in series alongside one another without gaps therebetween. The terminal modules of the inserted body includes a pair of identical lateral terminal module and a plurality of inner terminal modules between the pair of lateral terminal modules.